Tag Archives: religion

If Israel were a religious, rather than secular nation, pointing out THOU SHALT NOT STEAL is a commandment. But Israel deliberately chose to become a secular state. A state where Christians, Muslims and Jews would all be treated equally. Where stealing just ain’t all that big a deal if you can get by with it. If you’ve got heavier artillery than the folks you’re stealing from.

A friend of mine, a mainline Christian of US lineage, supports Israel and always has. He reads and believes the Israeli websites pointing fingers of blame away from Israel and carefully examining ‘what’s been done to Israel’ and the spotlighted victimized Israel loves to portray. Along with muted Holocaust innuendo so’s to keep him from examining Israeli reality. Using the tragedy of the camps to enrich themselves with stolen land.

Because US Christians have responded to Israel’s guilt-button pushing so long it’s almost impossible for a Christian to take an honest look at Israel without remembering Christian treatment of Jews throughout history and deluging Israel with cleansing forgiveness. For anything. Closing the eyes because Christians slaughtered Jews for 2000 years.

And Christians do so hope to see the Second Coming of Jesus. Who couldn’t overlook the stealing by Israel of the land the Temple of Jerusalem sat on so’s to hasten Jesus coming back? Stealing it back and killing any SOB Palestinian standing in the way of Jesus coming back. Nobody likes Palestinians anyway. Israel’s had a propaganda machine working 24/7 to make sure of that.

But that isn’t what Jesus would do, is it? Jesus don’t like stealing, even if it’s Jews doing it. Jesus don’t like killing, even if it’s Jews doing it.

If Jesus could somehow preemptively come back today without waiting for Israel to tear down that mosque and rebuild the Temple, what do you think he’d say?

I think he might say Blessed are the peacemakers,

I think he might say, put some teeth into enforcing International Law against them, same as you’ve done in other countries,

I think he might say Boycott those bastards and quit selling them weapons to help them hold on to their ill-gotten gains.

I think he might say, Shun them

Because it’s the Christian thing to do.

Shunning Israel without reverting to keeping regular, honest Jews out of the country clubs or herding them into camps in the Christian countries ought to add some novelty to riding herd on International piracy by Israel.

Hi readers. If you’ve been noticing the Hamas terrorists and the Israel government sponsored terrorists composing their military all seem similar, there’s a reason. They’re all genetically identical.

Israel is behaving the way the fanatics in the countries around them behave because they’re all just kinfolks. There’s no difference in them aside from a sprinkling of religion, mainly Judaic in nature. All going back to the ancient Abraham who was ready to sacrifice his son with a knife on an altar. Because he thought he heard God tell him to do it. Is it any mystery Muslims and Jews have a lot of issues with THAT seething down underneath it all?

Hell, there are probably legions of modern-day self-proclaimed holy men over there on both sides declaring God’s telling them they have to sacrifice their genetic cousins. And legions of others on both sides listening and believing.

It sure as hell wouldn’t surprise me.

And I should mention, legions of people in the church-houses all over Europe and the US are cheering for Israel. Because there’s a trophy if Israel land-grabs the temple mount and builds a new temple where the Mosque sits.

Got that? Tears down the Mosque on the temple mount which doesn’t belong to them. And rebuilds the Hebrew temple that used to sit there.

The prize, Christians believe, is the Second Coming of Christ. As predicted by John the Divine or someone. When Solomon’s temple is rebuilt Christ will return.

Well jeeze. No wonder everyone’s ignoring these temporary acts of savagery Israel’s doing on the cousins. It’s only temporary because everything will be set straight when Christ comes back. According to the Bible or something, I reckons.

Need to read through this again, or have you got it tucked together in your minds in ways you can understand it?

The Times recently carried this unusual report on an Israeli Jew (Tsvi Misinai, a retired computer expert) who’s hoping to prove that Palestinians are descended from Jews. Apparently, he thinks that proving this will help to stop the bloodshed. His idea is that modern Jews are descended from emigration in the first few centuries of the Christian era. The Jews who stayed put in Palestine converted to Islam, and became Palestinian Arabs. There’s hope that genetic tests might be able to prove this.Well, there is good news and bad news on that score.The good news is that the genetics of Arabs and Jews have been pretty extensively researched. The classic study dates to 2000, from a team lead by Michael Hammer of University of Arizona. They looked at Y-chromosome haplotypes – this is the genetic material passed from father to son down the generations.

What they revealed was that Arabs and Jews are essentially a single population, and that Palestinians are slap bang in the middle of the different Jewish populations (as shown in this figure).

Another team, lead by Almut Nebel at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, took a closer look in 2001. They found that Jewish lineages essentially bracket Muslim Kurds, but they were also very closely related to Palestinians. In fact, what their analysis suggested was that Palestinians were identical to Jews, but with a small mix of Arab genes – what you would expect if they were originally from the same stock, but that Palestinians had mixed a little with Arab immigrants. They conclude:

We propose that the Y chromosomes in Palestinian Arabs and Bedouin represent, to a large extent, early lineages derived from the Neolithic inhabitants of the area and additional lineages from more-recent population movements. The early lineages are part of the common chromosome pool shared with Jews (Nebel et al. 2000). According to our working model, the more-recent migrations were mostly from the Arabian Peninsula…

So, as far as male lineage goes, the genetic story is very clear. Palestinians and Jews are virtually indistinguishable.

Women are a bit more tricky…
Up until last year, the matrilineal heritage of Jews also seemed pretty clear. Analysis of elements in mitochondrial DNA (which is passed from mother to daughter) seemed to show that Jewish populations around Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East were derived from at least 8 unrelated ‘founding mothers’.

Where they came from wasn’t clear, but the most likely explanation was that they were from local populations that bred with immigrant Jewish males. Their offspring became absorbed into the Jewish community.

In 2008, a more sophisticated analysis was published that made use of whole mitochondrial DNA sequences. They found no evidence for the genetic bottle necks that indicate founding mothers in the large Jewish populations. Instead, they found a complicated picture with a very diverse gene pool suggesting intermarriage both with local populations and other Jewish groups.

The overall conclusion is that the female Jewish line deviates a lot more from the Palestinian heritage than the male line, but the heritage is still there.

So that’s the good news. Jews and Palestinian Arabs are blood brothers – although this close genetic relationship probably stems from pre-Judaic times, rather than any more recent conversion of Palestinian Jews to Islam.

And the bad news? Well, this basic story has been known for the best part of a decade now. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, it hasn’t lead to the warring sides laying down their weapons and engaging in a group hug. This is a religious conflict, not a genetic one.

THE HEAVENS—Expressing His hope that the contribution would assist efforts to find a cure for the devastating disease, the Lord Our God, Creator and Supreme Ruler of the Universe, confirmed Thursday that He had pledged $5,000 to the American Cancer Society to help fund ongoing research. “I have the means, so I can afford to give a little bit of money to support such an important cause,” said He Who Commanded Light to Shine Out of the Darkness, describing the contribution as “the very least [He] could do” in the fight against the disease that causes more than 8 million deaths annually. “Now, obviously a $5,000 donation isn’t going to just make the cure appear by itself. Clearly, there’s no magic bullet for this thing. But every little bit helps. And knowing I might be making a small difference in the life of some kid with leukemia or mom with breast cancer just makes me feel like I did my part.” The Divine Creator of Life, Heaven, and Earth told reporters that if the timing works out, He also plans to participate in a 10K benefit run for Hodgkin lymphoma this fall.

Like this:

Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read this morning. I like to think I can’t bring myself to object if the Mormon Tabernacle Choir all want to marry one another in one fell swoop. I almost got sucked into reading the Yahoo News article about it anyway, though.

Yahoo news headed things up with a photo of the male members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir all dressed up in suits, evidently having intended to get married to one-another and having been refused by the LDS Church permission-givers. At least I assume so. The pic and the headline, Mormon Leader Outlines Opposition To Gay Marriage[http://news.yahoo.com/mormon-leader-outlines-opposition-gay-marriage-173205476.html]

So what the hell am I supposed to care what the Mormon leaders think about the Choir engaging in holy matrimony with itself? Brigham Young had more damned wives than anyone those days could count and history doesn’t even mention whether he could sing a note, nor whether they could.

I’ve never been offended by whether Brigham Young’s wives were women or men in drag. Never even asked myself a question about it. But I’m betting if they could sing, even if they were women, it would be the only thing non-dramatic about having that many women in a household.

Anyway, I didn’t read the article, but I hope the damned choir goes ahead and marries one another if they want to, no matter what the LDS leadership thinks about it. Maybe all get on bicycles and scoot off to Alabama and find a judge there to tie the knot.

I’m still muddling along with God Knows, by Joseph Heller, but he’s got me thinking about a lot of things somewhat unrelated to his own theme. So what’s below inevitably has roots, both in the OT, and in Heller’s recreation of Hebrew history and the Bible through the eyes of King David.

So this is going to be me, Old Jules aka wossname, Jack, mulling this over. Not King David, not Heller, not even God in the sense you’re most likely to define the concept.

I’ll get into this thing about cumulative human wisdom, but first I’d just like to confide to you how much better I’d feel if God weren’t so sneaky and cagey about his real name in his dealings with those old time Hebrews. What the hell is that all about? Who is He afraid they’ll find out he really is?

I’m not pushing the idea He was Roy Rogers, mainly because Roy was a fairly consistent, courteous human being, though daft.

And if they did know who God really is, how’s He scared they’d think less of Him in the knowing of it? After all, it ain’t as though God was putting on any airs in his dealings with them. Never makes any attempt to explain himself, elevate himself in the eyes of his Chosen People.

Just go back and read the OT. How he treats Moses, sheeze, Job, King David, Adam and Eve, even Cain and Abel. And inconsistent, uneven-handed so consistently as to assure nobody’s going to acquire any wisdom from any of it.

Call me paranoid, but I think there’s more to this side stepping and dodging the true identity with a name stamped into the dogtags than those ancient Hebrews imagined, that anyone since has explained sufficiently to argue He might have been Anyone, but particularly some located in the vicinity of Greece and Rome before too much more time passed.

So you end up with an ancient religion and storybook to accompany it preserved from a language with a vocabulary of 88 words, 17 of which are pseudonyms for the name of God, and not one of those 17 believed by those using them in spoken words to be the actual name of the party of the first part.

But I’ve digressed.

I was going to muse on why human beings are unable to acquire cumulative wisdom similarly to the way technical knowledge assimilates. About how it happens all these centuries have sneaked by and the King Davids are still capable of becoming so captured by passion as to compromise, destroy themselves. About how Adonijahs then until now, rhetorically next in line for their thrones, their power, their wealth, still rape their sister Tamars and [at least] risk destroying themselves in the doing of it. About how the Joabs all these centuries have coldly murdered in the name of governmental authority anyone standing in the way of their ambitions, always maintaining the moral high ground.

The old Satanist wearing the Vietnam Veteran cap I wrote about a couple of weeks ago was at the coin laundry again. He was telling me the difference between Satanists and devil worshipers, which he isn’t one of, he says.

“Even the devil worshipers,” he explained, “Just aren’t all that evil. They try, but it’s mostly just waving a bloody shirt at it.”

“Devil worshipers try but can’t pull it off?” Me, thinking this over.

“That’s right. You’d think there’d be plenty of evil for them to get into, but the really evil people don’t want anything to do with them. Not even the somewhat evil people, Catholics, Jews, Baptists and Muslims. They find out a person’s a devil worshiper they think poorly of him. Even when they’re jumping the hurdles for award-winning evil.”

Shaking my head. “I never knew that. You’d think especially Catholics and Zionists and Muslims would open their arms and their hearts to honest-to-goodness no-shit devil worshipers. Why is that, do you think?”

He shook his head, too. “I don’t know why it is. I’m not a devil worshiper and I’m not any of those others. I’m just a Satanist trying to get through life as best I can. But if I wanted to be really evil I’d have one hell of a time managing to do it. I wouldn’t know where to start.”